The fight for control of the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections will be fought on a limited battlefield, a leading nonpartisan political handicapper predicts.

The Cook Political Report, as it unveiled its first rankings for the next midterm elections on Thursday, listed 10 Democrat-held seats and eight Republican-controlled seats as toss-ups. 

The GOP, when at full strength, will hold a razor-thin 220-215 majority in the House, which means the Democrats only need a three-seat gain in 2026 to win back the chamber for the first time in four years.

‘Another Knife Fight for the Majority’ is the headline the Cook Report used to describe the House showdown ahead.

And Cook Report publisher and editor-in-chief Amy Walter spotlighted in a social media post that a ‘Small playing field + volatile political climate = epic battle for House control.’

The 10 House Democrats whose re-elections are listed as toss-ups are: Reps. Adam Gray of California (CA-13); Derek Tran of California (CA-45); Jared Golden of Maine (ME-02); Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico (NM-02); Laura Gillen of New York (NY-04); Don Davis of North Carolina (NC-01); Marcy Kaptur of Ohio (OH-09); Emilia Sykes of Ohio (OH-13); Vicente Gonzalez of Texas (TX-34); and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State (WA-03).

The eight Republicans spotlighted by the Cook Report as vulnerable are: Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona (AZ-01); Juan Ciscomani of Arizona (AZ-06); Gabe Evans of Colorado (CO-08); Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa (IA-01); Tom Barrett of Michigan (MI-07); Don Bacon of Nebraska (NE-02); Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania (PA-07); and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania (PA-10).

President Donald Trump recaptured the White House, the Republicans flipped control of the Senate, and the GOP held on to its fragile House majority in November’s elections.

That means Republicans will not only defend a razor-thin majority – when all 435 House seats are once again up for grabs in 2026 – but are also facing plenty of history, as the party in power traditionally faces electoral headwinds in the midterms.

But the Cook Report’s Erin Covedy and Matthew Klein noted that ‘though their majority is dangerously thin, in some ways, Republicans are starting out in a stronger position than they were in 2018. Trump’s latest victory was broad; he clawed back ground in suburbs that had lurched to the left since 2016 and made massive inroads in urban areas.’

They added that ‘almost all of the most competitive House districts moved to the right between 2020 and 2024 (Washington’s 3rd District was the lone exception).’

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella touted in a statement that ‘the math is in our favor, and it’s clear House Republicans are on offense for 2026.’

He also asserted that ‘House Democrats are in shambles — they don’t have a clear message and they’re incapable of selling voters on their failed agenda. We will work tirelessly to hold the Democrat Party accountable and grow our Republican majority.’

Courtney Rice, communications director for the rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, emphasized that ‘voters will hold House Republicans accountable for failing to lower costs while fostering a culture of corruption that benefits their billionaire backers.’

‘The political environment is in Democrats’ favor heading into 2026 — and with stellar candidates who are focused on delivering for their districts, House Democrats are poised to take back the majority in 2026,’ Rice predicted.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday, in response to its May 2024 arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The order unveils financial sanctions and visa restrictions against ICC officials and their family members who support ICC investigations against U.S. citizens and allies. 

The White House also signed executive orders on Thursday instructing the Justice Department to establish a task force dedicated to weeding out ‘anti-Christian bias,’ and a review of all nongovernmental organizations that accept federal funds. 

The ICC is an independent, international organization based in The Hague and established under the Rome Statute, an international treaty that took effect in 2002. The court oversees global issues including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. 

The Trump White House claims that the U.S. and Israel are not subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC because the court poses threats to U.S. sovereignty and constitutional protections. Additionally, the White House has accused the ICC of politicization and said it has targeted Israel without holding regimes like Iran to the same standards.  

In September 2018, Trump said that ‘as far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority.’

In May 2024, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, from the U.K., asked for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whom Netanyahu fired in November 2024. The warrant paved the way for their arrest, should they visit any of the 124 countries that are party to the Rome Statute, including the U.K., France and Austria. 

Khan also issued arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif, who have all since been killed by Israeli forces. 

Khan said he issued these warrants against Hamas leaders for war crimes including murder, taking hostages as a war crime, torture and other inhumane acts, following the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Khan also said he issued the warrants against the Israeli leaders due to war crimes including starvation of civilians, directing attacks against a civilian population, persecution and other inhumane acts. 

In January, after Trump’s inauguration, the House also passed legislation that would sanction the ICC, but the measure failed to advance in the Senate.

Trump welcomed Netanyahu for a visit at the White House on Tuesday, where Trump signed an executive order reinstating his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran. Trump also unveiled plans to rebuild Gaza, and described Netanyahu as the ‘right leader’ for Israel. 

‘He’s done a great job and we’ve been friends for a long time,’ Trump told reporters. ‘We do a great job also, and I think we have a combination that’s very unbeatable, actually.’

Netanyahu also voiced appreciation for his friendship with Trump and his support for Israel and the Jewish people.

‘I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again,’ Netanyahu said Tuesday. ‘You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. And that’s why the people of Israel have such enormous respect for you.’

Trump previously issued sanctions against ICC officials in 2020, signing off on an asset freeze and family entry ban against them stemming from an ICC investigation into alleged U.S. actions in Afghanistan. 

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report. 

American voters overwhelmingly elected President Donald Trump to carry out his ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda despite Democrats calling him a ‘threat to democracy.’ Now that Trump is back in the White House, Dems are delaying key cabinet appointments and vowing to ‘blow this place up’ in the name of democracy.

Several Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are calling for a halt to all of Trump’s cabinet nominations. Protests hosted by lawmakers have erupted in Washington, D.C., this week as Democrats rally against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

‘God d—it shut down the Senate!’ Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., said during an anti-DOGE protest in Washington, D.C., Tuesday. ‘We are at war!’

While Democrats spent 2024 promising Americans they were the party who would protect democracy and uphold the rule of law in a post-Jan. 6 world, they are dancing to the beat of a new drum in 2025 by practicing civil disobedience. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told the crowd Tuesday, ‘We are here to fight back.’ 

‘We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it,’ Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, added. 

Democrats have doubled down on their call to action this week after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Americans to ‘fight’ Trump’s agenda ‘in the streets’ last week. 

‘We have to stand up and protest,’ Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass, said at another rally in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. ‘When we come back here the next time, there should be hundreds of thousands and millions of people descending on Washington, D.C.’

‘We will fight their violation of civil service laws. We will fight their violation of civil rights laws. We will fight their violations of separation of powers. We will fight their violations of our Constitution of the United States of America. We will not shut up. We will stick up. We will rise up,’ Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., added. 

Democrats held an all-night session Wednesday protesting Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Russell Vought, who served as OMB director during Trump’s first term, was a key architect of Project 2025. Democratic candidates and surrogates during the 2024 campaign cycle pointed to Project 2025 as proof of Trump’s ‘threat to democracy.’ Trump maintained he had nothing to do with it. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Vought is a ‘horrible, dangerous man’ at the rally Tuesday.

Democratic leaders and their constituents have spent all week protesting in major cities across the country. From Texas to California, protesters are speaking out against Trump’s ICE raids and federal government layoffs and the administration’s stance that there are two genders. 

Despite the Democrats’ protests, the Trump administration said it is following through on the agenda the American people voted for, and those who ‘incite violence’ should be held accountable. 

‘President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to make this government more efficient,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. ‘For Democratic officials to incite violence and encourage Americans to take to the streets is incredibly alarming, and they should be held accountable for that rhetoric.

‘If you heard that type of violent, enticing rhetoric from our side of the aisle, from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, I think there would be a lot more outrage in this room today. It’s unacceptable.’

As the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) works to slash government waste, a bipartisan bill in Congress is aiming to bring the federal government’s computer systems ‘out of the Stone Age.’ 

ThebipartisanStrengthening Agency Management And Oversight Of Software Assets (SAMOSA) Act passed the House in December, and Sen. Joni Ernset, R-Iowa, is leading efforts to get it passed in the upper chamber. 

Ernst, the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, said the SAMOSA Act will ‘bring Washington out of the Stone Age and into the 21st century.’ 

Fox News Digital is told the bill could potentially save $750 million annually for taxpayers by consolidating federal agencies’ cloud computing software licenses. A source close to the proposal said ‘fixing federal IT procurement will be a key part of her sweeping efforts as chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus to downsize government and eliminate more than $2 trillion in waste.’ 

‘If the government allowed meaningful competition in bidding for software, taxpayers could save up to $750 million a year,’ Ernst said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘Let’s pass my bill to force federal agencies to take commonsense steps when purchasing software, instead of throwing away taxpayer dollars like monopoly money.’

The legislative proposal has the support of industry groups. 

‘The SAMOSA Act is a vital step toward modernizing the federal IT infrastructure, ensuring fair software licensing practices in its procurement and saving money for taxpayers,’ Ryan Triplette, Executive Director of the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘There aren’t many areas in Congress where we see bipartisan support, but ensuring our IT infrastructure is as efficient, secure and cost-effective as possible is one of them. The Coalition for Fair Software Licensing will continue working with partners in Congress to get the SAMOSA Act across the finish line and signed into law.’

The bill gives the Chief Information Officer of every government agency no more than 18 months to organize a ‘comprehensive assessment’ of the software paid for or deployed throughout the agency. The review should include an inventory of all the current software, identify contracts for the use of the software and their expiration dates and list additional fees or costs, including fees or costs for the use of cloud services, not included in the initial costs of the contract. The review should then give each agency the information necessary to ‘consolidate software entitlements of each agency,’ reduce unnecessary costs and ‘develop criteria and procedures for how the agency will adopt cost-effective acquisition strategies.’ 

On the House side, the SAMOSA Act was introduced by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 20 members of Congress.  

Ernst penned a letter in November to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who has since exited DOGE while reportedly weighing a potential Ohio gubernatorial bid), outlining ‘a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas for trimming the fat and reducing red ink.’ 

Among the options, Ernst said ‘consolidating agencies’ cloud computing software licenses could save $750 million every year.’ 

She cited a study by Michael Garland,software and government procurement industry expert, that found Microsoft and Oracle, the world’s two largest software companies, received 25% to 30% of their contracts ‘without meaningful competition.’ 

Citing one example of ‘vendor-lock,’ the study found the government spent $112 million more to buy Microsoft Office than Google Workspace ‘in order to avoid perceived costs to switch.’

‘A five percent improvement in price performance, due to enhanced software competition, could produce savings up to $750 million annually,’ the report said. 

It also described how the U.S government spent almost $2 trillion on Information Technology (IT) since 1994, and about $300 billion of that expenditure has been on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software. 

‘On an annual basis, the government collectively spends $10 to $15 billion on new software and for the maintenance and support of previously purchased software. Unfortunately, the majority of the COTS software spend has been destined for only a limited set of software companies who have managed to create a largely vendor-locked COTS software estate,’ Garland wrote. ‘Until now, the government has had little visibility into how resoundingly its incumbent software estate has been captured by so few. As a result, an oligarchy of software companies has been free to use fear, uncertainty, and sometimes questionable business practices to make authentic competitions against incumbent software applications relatively rare.’ 

Ernst’s letter also pointed to how the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified 10 critical federal IT legacy systems – or systems that are outdated or obsolete – that were most in need of modernization in 2019. The legacy systems were said to provide ‘vital support to agencies’ missions’ but ranged from about eight to 51 years old and ‘collectively cost about $337 million annually to operate and maintain.’ 

Several of the systems used older languages, such as Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL). 

‘The government runs on ancient computers & software. Needs an upgrade!’ Musk wrote on X in November.

The White House is opening its artificial intelligence plan up to Americans to contribute policy ideas to the Trump administration to ensure that the United States is ‘the undeniable leader’ in AI technology. 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the end of January on artificial intelligence, which White House officials say shows that he is ‘dedicated to America’s global leadership in AI technology innovation.’ 

That order directed the development of an AI Action Plan. 

On Thursday, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy encouraged the American people to share policy ideas for the AI Action Plan by March 15. 

‘The Trump Administration is committed to ensuring the United States is the undeniable leader in AI technology,’ Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Lynne Parker said in a statement. ‘This AI Action Plan is the first step in securing and advancing American AI dominance, and we look forward to incorporating the public’s comments and innovative ideas.’ 

Americans can share their proposals on the Federal Register’s website through the middle of March.  

White House officials said they are seeking input from interested public parties, including academia, industry groups, private sector organizations, state, local and tribal governments, and others. 

Officials said the AI Action Plan will ‘define priority policy actions to enhance America’s position as an AI powerhouse and prevent unnecessarily burdensome requirements from hindering private sector innovation.’

‘With the right governmental policies, continued U.S. AI leadership will promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security,’ the White House said in a statement. 

The Trump administration says its focus on AI was a campaign promise of the president’s, after vowing to revoke former President Joe Biden’s executive order that they said hindered AI innovation and imposed ‘unnecessary government control’ over AI development. Under Trump’s executive order, AI in the U.S. ‘must be free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas.’ 

The order and focus on AI is not new for Trump. 

During his first administration, in 2019, Trump signed the first-ever executive order on artificial intelligence, recognizing the importance of American leadership in the space and for the economic and national security of the U.S. 

Trump also took executive action in 2020 to establish the first-ever guidance for federal agency adoption of AI to deliver services to the American people and ‘foster public trust’ in the technology. 

White House officials said the Trump administration’s renewed focus on AI is rooted in ‘free speech and human flourishing.’ 

President Donald Trump’s second administration has made the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) a prime target for spending cuts. Under Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is taking a serious look at the foreign aid agency — and America’s allies and enemies alike are taking notice.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital at the United Nations, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó didn’t hide his disdain for USAID. While insisting that he was not interested in interfering with US domestic issues, Szijjártó did speak about what he saw from the agency under former President Joe Biden.

‘The former administration couldn’t digest that we weren’t ready to give up our national positions. We were not ready to give up representing our national interests,’ Szijjártó told Fox News Digital. ‘And we were not ready to give up our non-liberal, patriotic, conservative type of approach.’

Szijjártó also accused the Biden administration of using USAID to ‘destabilize the situation in other countries’ and to fund ‘programs which were totally alien and strange compared to the culture and the heritage of other countries.’

‘If you ask me whether it’s good to us that there’s a revision period of 90 days when it comes to payments regarding USAID and others, we are very happy,’ Szijjártó added.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime ally of Trump, also ripped USAID after it was reported that the agency was funding Politico.

Prime Minister Orbán followed up in another tweet saying, ‘We had to endure for years that the ultra-progressive, self-proclaimed human rights champions of the mainstream media demonized Patriotic political forces for years. They did it because they were paid to do so by USAID and the previous, left-wing US administration. I agree with President [Trump]: this is too big and too dirty to hide from.’

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed during Wednesday’s press briefing that ‘more than $8 million taxpayer dollars’ went to Politico, adding that DOGE is ‘working on canceling those payments.’ However, the publication denied that it has ever been a ‘beneficiary of government programs.’

Musk, who is heading up Trump’s cost-cutting efforts through DOGE, described the agency as a ‘viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.’

On Monday, Trump’s White House issued a list of examples of ‘waste and abuse’ at USAID. This included $6M to fund tourism in Egypt, $1.5M in funding for DEI programs in Serbia’s workplaces, $47,000 for a ‘transgender opera’ in Colombia and more.

The White House also accused the agency of spending ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’ on ‘irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,’ adding that this was ‘benefiting the Taliban.’

At the end of its list, the White House noted that the highlighted examples were part of a longer list of projects.

‘Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW,’ the White House added.